nected with that delegation of power is to be
considered the eighth section of the first article which gives to
the Congress of the United States power "to make all laws which
shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution
in the government of the United States, or in any department or
officer thereof."

It will be observed, so far, that the Constitution has provided the
power but has not provided the regulations for carrying that power
into effect. The Supreme Court of the United States sixty-odd years
ago defined so well the character of that power and the method of
its use that I will quote it from the first volume of _Wheaton's
Reports, page 326:_

Leaving it to the legislature from time to time to adopt its own
means to effectuate, legitimate, and mold and model the exercise of
its powers as its own wisdom and public interest should require.

In less than four years, in March 1792, after the first Congress had
assembled there was legislation upon this subject, carrying into
execution the power vested by this second article of the
Constitution in a manner which will leave no doubt of what the men
of that day believed was competent and proper. Here let me advert
to that authority which must ever attach to the contemporaneous
exposition of historical events. The men who sat in the Congress of
1792 had many of them been members of the convention that framed the
Federal Constitution. All were its contemporaries and closely were
they considering with master-minds the consequences of that work.
Not only may we gather from the manner in which they treated this
subject when they legislated upon it in 1792 what were their views
of the powers of Congress on the subject of where the power was
lodged and what was the proper measure of its exercise, but we can
gather equally well from the inchoate and imperfect legislation of
1800 what those men also thought of their power over this subject,
because, although differing as to details, there were certain
conceded facts as to jurisdiction quite as emphatically expressed as
if their propositions had been enacted into law. Likewise in 1824
the same instruction is afforded. If we find the Senate of the
United States without division pass bills which, although not passed
by the co-ordinate branch of Congress, are received by them and
reported back from the proper committees after examination and